Reflections: from inside the training room
by Achraf Elgheriany
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Achraf Elgheriany
 Bio:
Achraf Elgheriany started working in the IT field by 2004, when he joined Orange Business Services, which at this time was still named Equant Integrated Services. At this time, Achraf was doing Standard customer service, Level 2.
One year later, Achraf made his first move, and took part of the customer service experts team, Level 3. |
It is a very interesting experience when you are having audience with no background, and you are here to give them a training course about the networking basics. You are expected to touch all ideas and concepts of networking, and never go deep in any of the topics, just to make sure you are keeping consistency when tackling every subject in the course.
The challenging part is when you are in the middle of explaining one of the topics, and then you are hit with a very simple question, that tackles an idea that never crossed your mind. At this particular point, you are expected to process the question, think, find the answer and present it in a very simplified way, in order to make sure that the audience get to understand. That is usually the moment when you hear another interpretation of the concept, but from a brand new and sometimes wierd point of view. Again, you are faced with new thoughts that you have to process, judge and eventually approve or challenge with the correct interpretation.
With the above described type of audience, the only concept that rules is :” once the projector is ON, the audience are OFF”. Interactive training methods, from Flip charts to group activities are the only way the audience are kept on track and listening. I have spent a lot of time exploring each participant in the training room and watching them fading away and their energy level decreasing, from the moment we turn on the projector and turn off the light. I have never found a satisfying answer about the reason for which the participants always sleep in front of a projector, but I learned to use it, only when It is essentials [troubleshooting, configuration, … ], or better, not to use it at all.
And here’s what I like about training; the deep effect in each individual concepts and the amount of change that you do in each of the participants. The moment you can see that a dozen of normal persons, now have new perspectives when looking to any IT system or any infrastructure, is the exact moment that you feel the victory. Victory against that old ideas, preset [mostly incorrect] concepts and the challenges that you were facing throughout the course. That is what I thought of sharing from inside the training room, after two complete, exhausting training days.
Achraf Elgheriany
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